The Backyards of Heaven receives funding

Julie Bettney, Minister of Tourism, Culture and Recreation, today announced approval for $5,000 for the first anthology of Newfoundland and Labrador and Irish poetry. The publication, The Backyards of Heaven, will be jointly published by the Centre for Newfoundland and Labrador Studies at the Waterford Institute of Technology in Ireland and Scop Productions Inc. from this province.

"This rich body of work further solidifies our ties to our Irish heritage," said Minister Bettney. "It is a historic marriage of two oral cultures - Newfoundland and Labrador and Ireland. The publication supports our important cultural partnership and assures our writers a place in the hearts of those who feel an affinity to Irish culture, whether at home or abroad."

In 2001, the Ireland-Newfoundland Partnership (INP), an Irish organization, was created in response to the Ireland Business Partnership (IBP). The latter organization was formed in this province around the same time a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the governments of Ireland and Newfoundland and Labrador in 1996. Responding to these new initiatives, the INP created a national competition in which Irish educational institutes were invited to compete for different portions of $140,000 Euro allocated for cultural projects. The purpose of these partnerships is to foster trade ties between Ireland and Newfoundland and Labrador and to promote the Irish legacy of this province.

In the spring of 2002, Dr. Stephanie McKenzie of Sir Wilfred Grenfell College in Corner Brook met with Dr. John Ennis, Dean of the School of Humanities at the Waterford Institute of Technology, and discussed a proposal involving Newfoundland and Labrador and Irish artists. The Waterford Institute was the most successful applicant, being awarded $40,000 Euro to pursue four different projects in the areas of storytelling/folklore, digital media, dance and literature. The Backyards of Heaven grew out of the literature component of the award.

"I am delighted the minister has supported this endeavor," said Dr. McKenzie. "Not only is the anthology an important milestone in both Newfoundland and Labrador�s and Ireland�s respective literary histories, but it is also an indication that both places are beginning to take economic chances with one another. The minister�s support of the anthology is the first Newfoundland and Labrador source of funding to be donated to this project and, if I am not mistaken, to any of the cultural initiatives which have grown out of INP competitions. Inevitably, and fittingly, the origins of the contemporary cultural renaissance taking place in this province will be traced back to its cultural guardian."

The anthology is scheduled for release in March of this year at The March Hare, Corner Brook�s nationally renowned three-day poetry festival. It will be launched in Ireland next spring at the Sean Dunne Poetry Festival in Waterford, Ireland.

Media contact: Melony O�Neill, Communications, (709) 729-0928.

2003 01 29                                          5:10 p.m.